Patch Management an important module of ITSM

There has been a number of solutions to protect your IT Network, Systems and End-points, and Patch Management as a tool can be one of the most effective tool in thwarting external intrusion that exploit software vulnerabilities. On the contrary it is given least importance as it is considered as an IT Operations functions and is rarely treated as an integral part of IT Security.

Lack of acceptance of Patch Management Tools can also be attributed to the following issues:

• Limited Budget
• Over-burdened IT Staff
• Complex IT Systems
• Lack of expert resource
• Fragmented responsibilities between Security and Ops
• Lack of control/visibility into users downloads

IT world these days consists of widespread malware & ransomware exploiting the unpatched systems, which in turn results in costly, time consuming downtime. If the patches are not deployed even if the patches were available, then the system is prone to attacks. On the other hand lack of package deployment solution leads to increase in bandwidth utilization and is time consuming as well.

According to a recent survey:

• 60% of organizations fail to identify system vulnerabilities that need update
• 99% of system vulnerabilities are publically known, not only to hackers, to user and system admin’s as well
• Patches are available for most vulnerabilities at the day they become public.
• The majority of first exploitation happens long after the vulnerability becomes public

So it is quite evident that a robust patch management solution can add the added level of security that the IT Teams have always longed for. Few of the benefits that the organizations can expect from the implementation of the tool are:

• Reduced downtime
• Reduction in labour cost
• Higher update and patch compliance rate
• Quick patch deployment
• Significant reduction in helpdesk calls
• Optimum utilization of bandwidth

Patch Management is not an easy task, and so even before you plan to invest in a tool you should keep the following points in mind and drill down to a particular vendor:

• Elements in your It Infra that requires patching
• Can the tool automatically fetch patches from different vendors
• Can you have control over patch deployment
• Can the patches be deployed remotely
• System vulnerability check - post patch update
• Patch reporting

This is where Motadata’s Patch Management Software a module of IT Service Management (ITSM) comes in handy. It lets you maintain the desired visibility over the newly released security updates and helps reduce bandwidth utilization. It ensures all the patches are up-to-date along with performance related updates to improve overall security posture that not only offers enhanced security but new features as well.

Patch Management Tool helps organizations proactively manage threats by automating the entire patch update process for Linux and Windows. It scans for network / system vulnerabilities, identifies missing security patches, collects them, analyses and deploys them based on the policy to a wide range of administered IT assets / endpoints (desktops, laptops, servers, roaming devices and virtual machines) in a systematic way from a single interface. To know more Click Here.

Jitendra Dabhi is blogger at Tech Untouch and The Windows 10 Tips. He is a passionate blogger and turned blogging into a money making ideas for smart passive income.